Facebook shuts down hundreds of accounts and pages linked to PH-based company

After removing several pro-Duterte and Marcos accounts, Facebook announced today that it was banning the Quezon City-based digital marketing company that owns the infamous Trending News Portal website.

In a statement posted on Facebook’s newsroom, Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s Head of Cybersecurity Policy, said that the social media company is banning Twinmark Media Enterprises and all its subsidiaries for allegedly violating its misrepresentation and spam policies.

Gleicher said that Twinmark committed offenses such as coordinating inauthentic behavior, using fake accounts, leading people to ad farms, and selling access to Facebook Pages to artificially increase distribution and generate profit.

Facebook also discovered that Twinmark was selling administrative rights to pages it created, a violation of the social media platform’s policy.

As a consequence, Gleicher said that Facebook removed 220 Facebook pages, 73 Facebook accounts, and 29 Instagram accounts belonging to the company and its subsidiaries. It also removed 43 million accounts that followed at least one of the Facebook pages that it owned.

Screenshot of the page which Facebook banned. Photo: Facebook Newsroom.

Gleicher showed two Facebook pages allegedly owned by Twinmark — Trending Topics Philippines and The Filipino Insights — which changed their names after they built up a substantial following. He said this was a violation of Facebook’s policies because it misleads followers.

Screenshot of the page which Facebook banned. Photo: Facebook Newsroom.

Gleicher also included screenshots of posts which were allegedly from Facebook pages owned by Twinmark that were shared “in a coordinated way.”